Confessions
by Nicollette Knight
Summary: Sherry has a confession. Jake isn't going to take it too well, she's pretty sure.


Sherry was cleaning out her desk and came across the letter folded neatly and placed at the bottom of the drawer. She opened it and when she read it, she felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. She found it somewhat funny, in a sad way, that even in a letter to Piers, she had talked about Jake, and that the first person she had ever admitted her love for Jake to had been her dead ex-boyfriend. An ex that Jake didn't even know about. She sighed, wiped at her eyes, and folded the letter back up. It was true that Jake knew her better than anyone, maybe even Claire these days. But he still didn't know this. It was time to tell him.

She went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face. She checked her reflection in the mirror, and satisfied she didn't look like she had been crying, went to find Jake. She searched the apartment and came up empty handed. Where could he have gone? She didn't remember him saying he was going out, but Jake was Jake and he did whatever he pleased whenever he pleased.

She sighed and decided it was probably better to feed him before dropping news like this on him anyway.

To: Jake

From: SuperGirl

Thinking of ordering Chinese. Bring home beer when you come?

From: Jake

To: Sherry

Will do.

She went to the kitchen and dug through the plethora of take-out menus she had stockpiled. She had to hope her and Jake never had a child. It would probably starve to death since neither of them were very good cooks and preferred to either eat out or order in. She found the menu for her favorite Chinese place and studied it for a few minutes before she called and placed an order for her favorite as well as a double order of Jake's favorite. He liked to tell her that he was still growing. Sherry was pretty sure he just liked to eat.

She paced the living room while she waited for the food and Jake to arrive. She was a little nervous to tell him about Piers. After all they'd been through, she was confident that he loved her, but the news could still possibly drive him out of the apartment while he came to terms with the revelation. Jake was predictable in his unpredictability.

Thirty minutes later, the door opened and Jake walked in, carrying a six pack of beer and her Chinese order. "Hey, look what I found downstairs." He brought them over to the table and set everything down before shrugging out of the hoodie he was wearing.

While he set everything down, Sherry got out plates and silverware and brought them over to the table as well. As they sat down to eat, Sherry wondered how to broach the subject. She picked at her food, lost in thought until she was startled out of them by Jake.

"What's up, Super Girl? You look like you have something on your mind."

She glanced at his plate and smiled a bit, noting how much he had already eaten. "I swear, I don't know where you put all the food you eat, Jake."

"I told you, I'm a growing boy! And nice try, changing the subject like that. What's up?"

She sighed and pushed her food away. "I'm not sure how to bring this up, so I'm just going to say it."

He slowly lowered his chopsticks and looked at her. "Say what, exactly?" His bright blue eyes focused on her with an intensity that almost hurt.

"Look, back in Edonia and China, I know you had a problem with the BSAA, and Chris in particular."

He smirked. "You caught that, did you?"

She cocked her head to the side and rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jake, I don't miss much." She sighed. "But, you know Chris is like a big brother to me. You never had or will have anything to worry about with him. But you need to know, before we move any further into this relationship, that Piers Nivans, Chris's partner? He was my ex-boyfriend. He even asked me to marry him. I turned him down."

She sat back and watched as a myriad of emotions flashed across Jake's beautiful eyes. He stared at her for a few moments before angrily pushing himself away from the table and getting up so quickly he knocked the chair over.

"It explains a lot, really." He paced, his long strides taking him from one end of the room to the other quickly. Jake stopped and narrowed his eyes as he looked at Sherry. "Why are you just now telling me this shit?"

She stood up and placed herself right in front of him. She looked up, holding his gaze. No way would she back down. "Honestly? Because I found a letter I wrote to him after he died. It explained to him why I turned him down when he asked me to marry him, because I'd never have the chance to do it in person like I should have. My reasoning was because he didn't know the _real_ me. I never told him about Raccoon City, or my father, or the virus. I never even told him exactly what my job was! How could I marry someone who didn't know anything important about me?"

Jake crossed his arms, still looking down at her. "So? You already told me all that shit, like the first day we met. So now you thought you'd clear your conscience by telling me about the pup soldier ex-boyfriend you were hiding? And why decide to tell me now?"

"I never hid it from you, Jake! Christ. I never told you, but you didn't ask, either. If you had asked me how many boyfriends I'd had in the past, I would have told you. Before you, exactly one, just in case you're wondering. But you never asked! And I never asked you about your past. You and I didn't really have _that_ kind of relationship until recently!"

"Oh, right, we'd just meet up and hook up and then go our separate ways. Fuck!" he moved past her, away from her.

"I told you I was sorry for that. But you could have said something too, Jake. This is _not_ all my fault! I wanted to come clean now, in case… someday… never mind. It probably doesn't matter anyway."

He turned to look at her. "What?"

"Forget it. Just forget it." She brushed past him, intending to just shut herself in the bedroom but he reached out and grabbed her arm, spinning her to face him.

"What doesn't matter, Sherry?"

She met his gaze. "Nothing! Ugh!" she yanked her arm out of his grasp. "Because I didn't want to have to say no if you ever decided you wanted marry me, okay? I wanted you to know, so you'd know all my secrets, okay, Jake?" This time, when she walked past him, he let her go. She slammed the bedroom door behind her.

She, and probably the neighbors, heard him let out a curse before the front door slammed behind him, rattling the photos on the wall. She waited a few minutes, until she was sure he was gone before coming out of the room. She started cleaning up the table and putting the left overs away. She set the chair he'd knocked over back on its legs and then went into the living room, looking at the photos on the wall.

There was a photo of her and Claire together from before Claire had been kidnapped and a photo of her parents on their wedding day. She stared at her photo collection, thinking what a sad testament to her life, and how few people she had in it that made her happy it was, before straightening them. With little else to do, she settled herself on the sofa to wait for Jake to come back.

Xxx

Jake sat at the bar, two empty bottles of beer in front of him, and a third about half way gone. There were also a couple of empty shot glasses. He was hunched over the bar, his head in his hands when a female voice next to him spoke up. "I thought that was you."

He shifted his head to look at the woman speaking. He was not entirely surprised to find Claire Redfield standing there. "What?" His tone was surly but he didn't care.

She slipped into the open seat next to him without being invited. "Rough night?" she nodded toward the empty booze bottles.

"Something like that. What do you want, Claire?"

She shrugged. "I was sure it was you over here, so I thought I'd come see why you were drowning yourself in booze and Sherry was nowhere to be found. Did she kick you out?"

She didn't look too upset at the thought that Sherry would kick him out so soon after he had moved in and it pissed Jake off. Did Claire think that this was something they both just jumped into? He knew that she didn't think he was good enough for Sherry. "The fuck? No! She didn't kick me out. Sorry to burst your bubble."

Claire studied him. "No, I don't think she would do that. She's got a good heart, even when it gets her in trouble."

Jake grabbed for the bottle that still had liquid in it, and took a drink to calm down. "Look, I know you hate me Claire. I got that. But you should know I'd never do anything to hurt Sherry." Except walk out on her when she told you she had a previous boyfriend and then confessed she would say yes if he ever asked her to marry him. But there were some things the younger Redfield didn't need to know.

Claire shook her head. "I don't hate you Jake. Sherry loves you, so I care too. But that doesn't answer the question of why are you here, drowning in alcohol?"

He weighed his options: He could blow her off again, and then she'd probably still sit here. Or he could tell her about the fight and maybe she'd leave him in peace.

"Shit. I don't want to talk about it. I'm not really a talk about your feelings kind of guy. Maybe Nivans was, but you're going to be disappointed if you expect me to talk about all that shit." Except with Sherry, but she was different.

Claire nodded, a knowing look on her face.

"What?"

"What did she tell you about Piers?"

Damn. Jake sighed and drained the bottle he was holding. "Nothing. She told me she dated him, she turned him down when he asked her to marry him. That she couldn't marry him because he didn't know her at all. Happy now?"

"And it pissed you off because… Why? She had a life before you?"

Jake leaned forward and banged his head on the bar. "Why won't you leave me alone, Claire?"

"Just answer the damn question, Muller."

"I don't know why it pissed me off, okay? Because she told me about everything else… Raccoon, the virus, her dad, being locked up for years… but never about him. Isn't that kind of important?"

"I don't know, Jake. Is it? I mean, she turned him down when he asked her to marry him. She could have come clean to him about it all and accepted his proposal, and you and I wouldn't probably be here having this conversation. But she didn't. And yet, here she is trying to tell _you_ all her secrets. Why, Jake? Because she loves you. Because someday she might want to marry you. So stop being an asshole and go home to your woman."

Jake banged his head one more time on the bar. "Go away, Claire," he groaned.

Claire patted his shoulder and got up, finally leaving him in peace.

When he came home, it was after three in the morning. He wasn't drunk but he was definitely buzzed. Sherry would kill him if she knew he had driven his bike that way. He took his boots off and was about to crash out on the sofa when he found her asleep there. He glanced toward the kitchen and dining room and saw she had cleaned up from their dinner and fight. He sighed and ran his hands over his short hair. He easily lifted her, carrying her to the bedroom. He was planning to just put her down in bed and go back in the living room to sleep when she turned her face into his chest and sighed quietly.

He didn't really have to think about it before he laid her in bed and then climbed in beside her. He covered them both up and pulled her to him. He fell asleep with her breath tickling his neck.

Xxx

Sunshine streaming through the cracks in the blinds fell across Sherry's eyes and woke her. She had a moment of confusion when she realized she was still fully clothed and in bed. She didn't remember coming to bed, but another second passed and she realized that Jake, also fully clothed, was clinging to her, sound asleep.

She eased herself out of his grip and changed from her clothing into her pajamas. She went to the kitchen and started the coffee before grabbing the bagels and cream cheese out of the fridge. She set the food on the table and poured two cups of coffee. She grabbed both and carried them back to the bedroom where Jake was snoring. She set one steaming mug on the bedside table next to him and then settled in next to him, sipping from her own mug.

It took a few minutes but finally Jake stirred. He cracked one blue eye open and saw Sherry with her hands wrapped around a steaming mug sitting next to him on the bed. He shifted and pushed himself up. His mouth felt like he'd eaten cotton.

She glanced over at him. "Morning." She nodded at the nightstand. "I brought you coffee."

He reached over and took a grateful drink. "Thanks." He looked at her. "I-"

"I'm sorry," she said as he was about to say the same thing. She looked down into her coffee cup and let out a breath. "I wanted you to know. I probably could have found a better way to tell you though and I'm sorry for that."

"I probably overreacted a little bit." He grinned when she scoffed. "Especially considering he gave his life to save the world."

"In my letter – I wrote it about a week after Claire told me – I told him that I'd fallen in love with you."

Jake looked over at her, surprised.

She shrugged. "I told you I was afraid, and I wasn't sure how you felt."

He took another sip of coffee and set his mug aside. He reached over and gently extracted her mug and set that aside as well. He pulled her to his side and hugged her to him. He kissed the top of her head as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Since we're making confessions and shit, I have a confession to make too. I'm terrified, Super Girl. I'm so afraid you're going to decide you can do so much better than a fuck up like me. I'm nothing more than a kid who's only talent is killer for hire."

He felt her squeeze his waist as he continued. It was somehow easier to tell her when she wasn't watching his eyes. "You're this beautiful woman, right? And then there's me. I'm scarred, both physically and mentally. What could you possibly see in me?"

She looked up but didn't let go of him. "Jake, you saved my life more than once in Edonia and China. What I see in you is a man who is good and wants to be the best person he can be. What I see… is the man I love and who, for some strange reason, loves me too."

He gave her that half smile she loved so much. "It's not that hard to love you, babe. Especially when you bring me coffee in the morning. Even after I was a jerk and we fought and I walked out."

Sherry grinned up at him. "I put out bagels and cream cheese too." She kissed his chin.

"See? Easiest girl in the world to love."

She reluctantly released him and got up. "You change, and I'll go pour us some fresh coffee." She grabbed the mugs off the nightstand and headed for the kitchen. She paused at the door and turned to watch him pull off his shirt. She let her eyes linger on his well-defined back before smiling a bit and leaving the room before he caught her staring.

She was just setting the two mugs on the table when he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He bent so he could whisper in her ear. "I'm sorry I was such a dick last night. And I have another confession, Super Girl."

She turned in his arms, winding hers around his neck. "Yeah? What's that?"

"You remember when we escaped Neo-Umbrella's detention facility in China, when we first met up in the locker room?"

"Mmm, yeah. I remember." It was the first good look she'd had at Jake's body and she'd liked what she saw.

"I totally looked while you were changing."

She pulled him down and kissed him. "I guess I have another confession…" she whispered in his ear before kissing him again, longer this time. "I checked you out too."

"Yeah?" He lifted her, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist, and kissed her hungrily.

"I thought you were hungry," she said a bit breathlessly when he released her lips. She ran her hands over his hair, letting the prickliness tickle her palms.

"Oh, I'm hungry," he wiggled his brows suggestively, which earned a grin and a giggle from her.

Xxx

Sherry was curled into Jake's side, her head resting on his shoulder, his hand lightly trailing up and down her back. Her eyes were closed and she was pretty sure this was as close as a person could get to heaven without actually being dead.

"Why me?" he asked.

She shifted so she could prop her head up to see him. "Why you, what?"

"Why would you have told me your secrets – on the day we met – when you never told Nivans in the entire time you were together?"

"There's something freeing about telling your secrets to someone when you don't really care what they think of you." She smiled at his expression. "When I met Piers, I thought that he was cute, and I wanted to impress him. I was more than happy to give him my phone number. You… Well I wasn't there to impress you. You found out about my healing abilities by accident, but once it was out there I didn't really care what you thought. I was there to bring you in, not to date you."

"You thought he was cute?"

Sherry rolled her eyes. Of course that's what he'd hear. "You are much, much hotter Jake. And taller. And hotter." She ran her hand over his bare chest and stomach, grinning when he drew in a sharp breath. "So you ask, why you? Because I can be just Sherry with you, Jake. There's no qualifier with it. I'm not the girl who was infected, or the little girl that needed to be saved. I'm not the girl who has super healing powers or William Birkin's daughter. I am or was all of those things. But to you, I'm just Sherry. Sure I have "super powers" as you call them, but that doesn't define me for you. And that is what I love the absolute most about being with you. I can be crazy, stupid and silly, geeky, whatever. For a long time, I didn't even know who I was. Piers thought he loved this perfect girl, because that what I wanted to be for him. I didn't want him to know how messed up me and my life were because I was afraid he'd leave me. But you've seen all that, and you didn't run away. You came running toward me instead. You're a keeper, Jake Muller, and I love you."

He leaned toward her and kissed her. "I love you too, Super Girl." He patted her ass and shifted her slightly so he could get out of bed. "How busy are you with work?" he asked as he pulled his jeans on.

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Busy."

"Good. Run away with me." He grinned as he pulled a t-shirt over his head.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "I… what? I can't run away with you!"

"Sure you can! Call and leave them a message that you have a family emergency. You'll be back in a week."

"Jake, they know that I don't have any family."

"Tell them Claire died."

"Jake! They'll figure out that she is alive and well quickly enough."

"Yeah, but by then you'll be safely out of the country with me. C'mon, you and me, a trip to a tropical beach… It'll be fun. And romantic." He wiggled his eyebrows at her and grinned.

She threw a pillow at him. "I can't believe I'm even considering this." She rolled out of bed and started getting dressed.

"Oh, it'll be fun."

"And I'll probably lose my job."

"So? You have an in with the BSAA, we'll go be agents together."

She shook her head, but she was smiling. "You'll go work for the BSAA? Fine. But we have to be on a plane before 7 AM tomorrow morning."

"Done."


End file.
